Blog

Margaret Atwood Twitter Q&A with Francesca Haig and fans

For those of you who were unfortunately living under a rock (or away from social media) this weekend, we’re delighted to tell you that our virtual festival #BFIVoyager was out of this world. We had some fantastic events across Twitter, Facebook and here on the blog, all of which… Read More

The Fire Sermon cover REVEALED!

There has already been huge excitement around this book on Twitter from authors, bloggers, vloggers and the HarperVoyager team, and we’re now very excited to reveal the cover for Francesca Haig’s The Fire Sermon, published in February 2015. The cover reveal happened earlier… Read More

Rewriting the Script: Laura Liddell Nolen (@LauraLLNolen) gives 3 Reasons YA Sci-Fi Creates Spectacular Female Characters – #BFIVoyager

Ray Bradbury wrote that Science Fiction is the art of the possible. What are the limits of mankind’s abilities, and what would happen if we reached them? Or, better yet, removed some of those limits? Or, to draw from Mr. Bradbury’s imagination, what if we made them worse? Sci-fi reimagines,… Read More

Designer Mike Topping on redesigning HarperVoyager’s Stephen Baxter backlist – #BFIVoyager

As this is a science fiction festival, let’s take a peek into the future. Next year, Harper Voyager will reissue backlist titles by the acclaimed British SF writer Stephen Baxter. I was lucky enough to land the job of designing new covers and Steve was kind enough to allow me… Read More

Brian Cox’s Wonders of the Universe in Infographics Part 4 – #BFIVoyager

To explore the science behind science fiction, we have collected together some of the most illuminating infographics from Prof Brian Cox and Andrew Cohen’s brilliant WONDERS OF THE UNIVERSE, published by William Collins. Click on the image to see it in more detail. Sub-Atomic Particles Our understanding of the structure… Read More

Female Characters in YA Science Fiction, Christi J. Whitney (@ChristiWhitney) – #BFIVoyager

Males have traditionally dominated science fiction literature, but strong female protagonists are flourishing these days, especially in the realm of YA. Dystopian settings allow for more heightened moments of character building—a female embracing her weaknesses and strengths in order to decide her own fate and become an agent in changing… Read More

The soundtrack to James Smythe’s The Explorer (@jpsmythe) – #BFIVoyager

James Smythe’s The Explorer has been compared to literary sci-fi greats like Kazuo Ishiguro and JM Coetzee, as well as incredible films like Gravity and Duncan Jones’ Moon. Here he shares the soundtrack behind this tense, claustrophobic and completely gripping book. Listen along with… Read More

Ingrid Seymour (@Ingrid_Seymour) on why the YA genre needs to keep pushing gender boundaries – #BFIVoyager

Compared to the not-so-distant past, commercial Sci-Fi now incorporates a significant number of female protagonists between its pages – a very notable fact in the young adult category. As a female YA author, I couldn’t be more pleased. Dystopia, with characters like Katniss and Tris, has enjoyed the most benefits. Read More

In memory of ‘Crash’, by Beatrice and Fay Ballard – #BFIVoyager

To celebrate the re-publication of J.G. Ballard’s ‘Crash‘ with a new introduction from Zadie Smith, 4th Estate asked Beatrice and Fay, the author’s daughters, to collect their memories of their father at the time he was writing the novel. They replied with two equally touching pieces. Thank you,… Read More

Peter Newman (@runpetewrite) on Contact! – #BFIVoyager

For me, science fiction is all about contact, where human beings interact with new technology or new species and how each then changes the other. Growing up, science fiction shaped me in many ways, small and large. Star Wars altered the way I thought about Lego long before… Read More

An interview with David Cronenberg (Part III) and a competition! – #BFIVoyager

My view of ‘Tomorrow’s World’, Jason W. LaPier (@JasonWLaPier) – #BFIVoyager

One of the themes of the #BFIVoyager festival is ‘Tomorrow’s World’, so I’d like to tell you about the novel I have coming out next summer. Unexpected Rain takes place several centuries into the future. Near-light-speed travel has enabled humans to colonize a few nearby star systems, which turns out… Read More

Letters from Ray Bradbury – #BFIVoyager

We asked Dawn Sinclair, HarperCollins’s archivist, to rummage through our Glasgow vaults for any SF-related treasures they might be hiding. She surfaced with these fantastic letters from the dearly departed Ray Bradbury, which we now share with you for the #BFIVoyager Festival. The first letter, concerning the publication of Bradbury’s 1969 short story… Read More

Meet Vincent H. O’Neil – #BFIVoyager

Brian Cox’s Wonders of the Universe in Infographics Part 3 – #BFIVoyager

To explore the science behind science fiction, we have collected together some of the most illuminating infographics from Prof Brian Cox and Andrew Cohen’s brilliant WONDERS OF THE UNIVERSE, published by William Collins. Click on the images to see them in more detail, and look out for more WONDERS… Read More

An interview with writer and director David Cronenberg (Part II) – #BFIVoyager

The long-awaited publishing of Consumed gave Candice Carty-Williams a chance to talk to its writer, the director and king of venereal horror, David Cronenberg. In this wonderfully in-depth yet satisfyingly broad three-part interview, they speak about the book, Cronenberg’s processes, how similar writing prose is to directing, film, existentialism, the advancement of technology, and nausea. Read More